Washing Your Engine Bay - A Step By Step Guide

. This is a discussion on Washing Your Engine Bay - A Step By Step Guide within Maintaining My Ride. Part of The Automotive Answers category; hi i want to know that i hve a wagonr 2008 cng model. the engine bay is dirty and need ...

hi i want to know that i hve a wagonr 2008 cng model. the engine bay is dirty and need a wash.. please can any one tell me can i direct wash it with water. or some other thing first have to be cover , not get that area watered.

Hi ankit024, Please make sure to cover the alternator, air filter intake, sensors which are directly visible, fuse box, Negative terminal of the battery, electrical couplers, security alarm buzzer(If inside the engine bay) and any other electrical part related to CNG setup.
Do not use direct jet of water on the engine but spray the water evenly with low pressure.
After complete wash, make sure you dry all the couplers and sensors with pressurised air by vaccum cleaner., After that start your car for a few minutes.

I always thought & most people I have spoken to also were hesitant to use any water inside the engine bay because apart from the electrical stuff even a little water can cause rust. So I just dust it regularly & leave the cleaning part to the ASC folks who apparently clean it with diesel.

Just curious whats the need to clean it or keep it sparkling clean, is it just visual appearance or some purpose behind the whole thing?

IndicaDLS2002- See, If your engine bay is clean and sparkling your air intake will suck in less dust. Apart from that if dust enters in some couplers or sensors it can cause problems with the vehicle.
Apart from that, if you keep your car sparkling from outside, you should also keep it sparkling from everywhere rather ignoring the engine bay.
A clean engine will return you good mileage and better performance.

Kichu- May be. From the next time ask them to cover all the electricals and after washing dry the engine bay properly with compressed air. Sometimes they simply start the engine and let it dry without drying it with compressed air which can be disastrous for modern cars.

Hi jazzyb5454, Any engine bay you wash, just cover these things-
Air intake, Battery terminals, Light couplers, ECM (If its there in engine bay), any electrical coupler, all sensors, alternator and you are good to go.
Remember to dry the water completely before starting the car.
Use plastic and rubber band for masking.

For engine bay you can also use diluted Vim Liquid, yes the same what we use in kitchen), works good on soiled areas.
I have been using this method in my ritz petrol and my 800 carb, no prob so far.

Hi deville_56, Diesel works great on oily areas, But since you are using water afterwards, i think you should not take chances and cover all electricals as well as dry them with compressed air to avoid any issues.

Hi deville_56, Diesel works great on oily areas, But since you are using water afterwards, i think you should not take chances and cover all electricals as well as dry them with compressed air to avoid any issues.

It's good to take precautions, but as a matter of fact 90% of the service center including authorized simply sprays water into the bonnet, some got diesel bottle attachment which sprays diesel along with water for better cleaning. If you are lucky enough, they dry the car in sun. I believe, most modern cars are designed to withstand these. Even one of the most reputed tuner/detailed does the same here. Seeing that one of the popular member over this forum started doing the same, then I started doing the same after seeing him do. So far so good. No issues at all with multiple cars. Yet to try on Polo, which was the only one dealer cautioned us not to spray.

Manually cleaning every nook and corner under the hood is tedious when you got more than one car to wash in a row , so we adopted the old school way.

It's good to take precautions, but as a matter of fact 90% of the service center including authorized simply sprays water into the bonnet, some got diesel bottle attachment which sprays diesel along with water for better cleaning. If you are lucky enough, they dry the car in sun. I believe, most modern cars are designed to withstand these. Even one of the most reputed tuner/detailed does the same here. Seeing that one of the popular member over this forum started doing the same, then I started doing the same after seeing him do. So far so good. No issues at all with multiple cars. Yet to try on Polo, which was the only one dealer cautioned us not to spray.

Manually cleaning every nook and corner under the hood is tedious when you got more than one car to wash in a row , so we adopted the old school way.

Of course there may be risk involved.

I will be trying pressure washing on polo's engine bay in some days, lets hope for the best. Can anybody tell me where is the ECU situated in Polo?